This invention relates to a system and method for utilizing prepaid services in a wireless telephone network for allowing use of a wireless telephone in an area in which the wireless telephone is not registered for roaming services.
In a typical wireless telecommunications system, users of wireless telephones subscribe to the services of a given wireless services provider for use of their wireless telephone in prescribed service areas. When the wireless telephone is operated outside the prescribed service area, the telephone enters into a roaming mode whereby it must use the wireless services of a services provider other than its home service provider. Typically, wireless service providers enter into agreements with other wireless service providers to allow their customers to use the services of other service providers when their customers are roaming in service areas outside their home service area. As a part of such agreements, information required to verify the legitimacy of the wireless telephone and information required for call processing for that wireless telephone is passed from the home service provider for the wireless telephone to other service providers with which the home service provider has roaming service agreements. Information supplied to potential roaming service providers includes the wireless telephone directory number and the mobile identification number for the wireless telephone.
Accordingly, when the user of the wireless telephone roams from her home service area to a roaming service area and attempts to send or receive calls, a wireless switch in the roaming service area will detect the call, verify that the wireless telephone may use the services of the roaming service provider in accordance with the services agreement between the telephone""s home service provider and the roaming service provider, and the wireless telephone call will be processed. In order to facilitate call processing, a home location register (HLR) of the roaming service provider contacts the home location register of the home service provider for any additional information needed for call processing including information required for billing associated with the call. Billing records associated with a call are typically generated at the switch or billing system of the roaming service provider and are subsequently forwarded back to the home service provider of the wireless telephone. The wireless provider compensates the roaming service provider for its services and bills the user of the wireless telephone for usage in the roaming service area.
A problem exists, however, when the user of the wireless telephone attempts to use the wireless telephone in a roaming service area in which the user""s home service provider has no roaming service agreements in place with service providers in the roaming service area. This problem is particularly prevalent when wireless customers travel to foreign countries where there are few if any reciprocal service agreements between local wireless service providers and wireless service providers of the user""s home country. When the user of the wireless telephone attempts to use the telephone in such an area, the wireless telephone will be registered on a local wireless switch in the roaming service area as an invalid subscriber because information necessary to identify the wireless telephone and process the call will not have been stored on that switch due to the absence of a roaming service agreement. Accordingly, the user will not be able to send and receive calls in that roaming service area.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method and system for allowing a wireless telephone to temporarily register and operate in a roaming wireless service area in which the wireless telephone is not otherwise registered to operate.
In accordance with the present invention, the above and other problems are solved by a method and system for registering and operating a wireless telephone in a roaming service area in which the wireless telephone is not registered for roaming services. When a wireless telephone is operated in a such a roaming service area, the roaming service provider whose services the wireless telephone must utilize in order to operate in the roaming service area informs the user of the wireless telephone through a recorded or live message that the wireless telephone may be used in the roaming service area if the user of the wireless telephone purchases and uses a prepaid utilization account offered by the roaming service provider. If the user purchases a prepaid card and loads it into the utilization account, a prepaid services system of the roaming service provider establishes a pseudo-telephone number for use by the wireless telephone in the roaming service area. The user""s home service provider is notified that all calls directed to the user""s permanent wireless telephone number should be forwarded to the pseudo-number assigned to the wireless telephone. After this registration process is completed, calls may be placed to and from the wireless telephone in the roaming service area, and billing for those calls will be directed to the prepaid utilization account purchased by the user.
These and other features and advantages, which characterize the present invention, will be apparent from a reading of the following detailed description and a review of the associated drawings. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.